The present invention relates to POS systems and, more particularly, to a point of sale (“POS”) system with a number of terminal units.
In a prior art POS system, a plurality of POS terminal units are connected via a telephone line to a host unit, and the data inputted from the terminal units are sent out to the host unit. For example, in a convenience store, sales data such as sales items, quantities and dates, which are inputted from a terminal unit installed in each shop, are sent out to the host unit. The host unit receives and sums up these sales data, and executes the most efficient stock management. The terminal units are provided with execution programs peculiar to the system, and in actual service these programs are started to execute pertinent processes.
In the prior art POS system, in which execution programs are stored in individual terminal units, whenever the execution programs peculiar to the system are updated to a new version, the execution programs stored in all the terminal units have to be updated to the new version. In addition, the management of the terminal units and the system should be performed for each terminal unit installed in each shop. This inevitably leads to scale increase of the system construction, resulting in reducing system operability.
In addition, the data to be sent out from all the terminal units are enormous in quantity. Accordingly, sales data and other data are not frequently sent out as real-time data from each terminal unit to the host unit. Instead, a so-called batch process is executed, in which the data is collectively sent out at night or the like. This means that it is impossible to address quickly a trouble or the like in the circumstances of real-time processing during the duty service time of the terminal unit.